Historical Slang We Love from the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’

All hail the silver fox of dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary turns 130 today. The first published installment of the definitive dictionary was printed back in 1884. The OED took more than 40 years to reach completion — all 400,000 plus words and phrases in 10 volumes. One thing that makes the OED special is its inclusion of historical (and modern) slang. Endangered, archaic words need love too, so we’ve picked a few of our favorites from the OED and its family of dictionaries. Feel free to share the old-timey words you can’t live without, below.

Primary editor of the ‘Oxford English Dictionary,’ James Murray

snootful

Noun
1. enough alcoholic drink to make one drunk:they’re tongue-tied until they’ve had a snootful

1.1 as much as one can take of something:he decided he’d had a snootful of playing the role